Cheburashka-Gotta Have One!

During the 2004 Olympic games I noticed this adorable little teddy bear the Russian athletes were holding. I fell in love with him so I googled every damn Russian site I could find and found out that Cheburashka is a famous Russian children's book character created by Eduard Uspensky. AND Eduard Uspensky never gave permission for his character to be used as the official Russian mascot!

Finally I found a link that sent me to 'Baby Melt' a cool comic/toy store on Sunset Blvd. Cheburashka was boxed in a little orange crate with oranges. There were also The Cheburashka Show tapes available that looked like the equivalent to our claymation Gumby series. Baby Alex owns all the Cheberashka goodies now. Here he is...